books.google.com - A Rage in Harlem is a ripping introduction to Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, patrolling New York City's roughest streets in Chester Himes's groundbreaking Harlem Detectives series. For love of fine, wily Imabelle, hapless Jackson surrenders his life savings to a con man who knows the...https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Rage_in_Harlem.html?id=n1cSAQAAMAAJ&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareA Rage in Harlem

A Rage in Harlem

A Rage in Harlem is a ripping introduction to Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, patrolling New York City's roughest streets in Chester Himes's groundbreaking Harlem Detectives series.

For love of fine, wily Imabelle, hapless Jackson surrenders his life savings to a con man who knows the secret of turning ten-dollar bills into hundreds--and then he steals from his boss, only to lose the stolen money at a craps table. Luckily for him, he can turn to his savvy twin brother, Goldy, who earns a living--disguised as a Sister of Mercy--by selling tickets to Heaven in Harlem. With Goldy on his side, Jackson is ready for payback.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review - DeltaQueen50 - LibraryThing

A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes was originally published in 1957. I listened to an audio version read by Samuel L. Jackson who was the perfect person to voice this blistering, unrelentless yet ...Read full review

LibraryThing Review

User Review - DaveWilde - LibraryThing

A Rage in Harlem was the first of a series of nine hardboiled detective novels featuring Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, the two toughest police detectives you ever heard of. These books are ...Read full review

About the author (1957)

Chester (Bomar) Himes began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 - 1936. His account of the horrific 1930 Penitentiary fire that killed over three hundred men appeared inEsquirein 1932 and from this Himes was able to get other work published. From his first novel,If He Hollers Let Him Go(1945), Himes dealt with the social and psychological repercussions of being black in a white-dominated society. Beginning in 1953, Himes moved to Europe, where he lived as an expatriate in France and Spain. There, he met and was strongly influenced by Richard Wright. It was in France that he began his best-known series of crime novels---includingCotton Comes to Harlem(1965) andRun Man Run(1966)---featuring two Harlem policemen Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humor.